Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Leads Beto O’Rourke In Midterm Matchup

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Texas Governor. Greg Abbott (R), is leading Robert Francis O’Rourke (D), the Democratic gubernatorial Candidate in their upcoming race. This was revealed by a UT/Texas Politics Project Survey.

According to the survey, O’Rourke was leading O’Rourke five points higher than O’Rourke (or 45 percent) than the Democrat’s 40%. This is significant because Abbott’s lead is not within the +/- 2.89% margin of error in the survey.

The other candidates are not even close. Eight percent of respondents admitted that they haven’t “thought about it enough” to form an opinion.

O’Rourke has a 19-point edge over Abbott among urban voters, and a 17-point advantage with moderate voters. However, Abbott holds an 18-point lead among independent voters. O’Rourke’s 22% is only 22 percent. In general, the Republican governor is viewed more favorably by independents than O’Rourke.

As a group, independents are more favorable toward Abbott than O’Rourke. However, both are in net negative territory with intensity expressed on the unfavorable side of the spectrum. 37% of independents rate Abbott favorably, 42% unfavorably (27% very unfavorable). O’Rourke is worse with 23% positive, 63% unfavorable (47%) very unfavorable). O’Rourke faces major obstacles as the summer turns into fall, even though it is possible to reduce Abbott’s baseline advantage in partisanship.

A majority of Texas voters (52 percent) agreed with the Abbott administration’s decision not to transport migrants to blue cities in the country. This is significant because O’Rourke took a different approach and devoted his campaign focus to gun control, abortion, and immigration.

O’Rourke has been voicing more divisions, accusing Abbott “of killing the women amongst us right now.” O’Rourke also made headlines last month when he refused to support any restrictions on abortion, even partial birth, Instead, O’Rourke answered the question by saying that he trusts women and their doctors to make that decision. This position is not in line with the majority Americans who believe that abortion should be limited.

The Texas survey was conducted among 1,200 registered voters between August 28 and September 6, 2022.

Wednesday’s RealClearPolitics Average showed Abbott ahead of O’Rourke with a mean of 7.2 percent.